Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Ivanhoe, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Merits of Chivalry
Disguise and Discovery
Inheritance and Displacement
The Vulnerability and Power of Women
History vs. Romance
Summary
Analysis
All this time, Prince John and Waldemar Fitzurse have been entertaining Norman nobles at York, working them into a frenzy in support of Prince John’s impending coup. The day after Torquilstone falls, Maurice de Bracy arrives not just with the bad news of Front-de-Boeuf’s death, but that Richard I has returned to England disguised as the Black Knight. Having been magnanimously freed by King Richard, De Bracy refuses to oppose him in any way on Prince John’s behalf. He and Fitzurse rapidly begin making plans to avoid Richard’s wrath.
Prince John cannot maintain power and control in England through his own virtue or his leadership skills; he must beg, bribe, and cheat his way into power. His poor example of leadership both models and enables the abuses of power practiced by the Norman nobility. Once de Bracy confirms what readers have long suspected—that the Black Knight is King Richard—they are invited to look back and directly compare his actions—which are brave, strong, concerned with justice, and directed toward protecting others—with John’s.
Themes
Pointing out that their attempts to escape will likely prove futile and that their only hope of safety lies with helping him to seize the throne, Prince John cajoles both men to stay on his side. He declares that he has no violent intentions against Richard I; he will be satisfied with his brother’s peaceful imprisonment. Fitzurse protests that the only safety lies in killing the rightful monarch. De Bracy refuses to participate or to allow Prince John to employ his mercenary band directly against the king. Finally, seeing no alternative, Fitzurse accepts the task of eliminating the threat Richard I poses, leaving De Bracy and his mercenaries to guard Prince John.
Events in the book have already portrayed Prince John as an incompetent leader at best and a cowardly and immoral one at worst. His lack of personal ethics and morals trickles down throughout the kingdom in the reign of terror that the Norman noble class which supports him has carried out. When faced with the prospect of King Richard’s return, despite John’s attempts to encourage Richard’s captors to keep him imprisoned, he decides to take the low road and eliminate the competition rather than making himself a better leader.
Themes
No sooner has Fitzurse left, however, than Prince John makes it clear to De Bracy that he intends to betray Fitzurse. Although he tacitly ordered Fitzurse to get rid of Richard, Prince John now asserts that he ordered the advisor not to harm a hair on his brother’s head, insinuating deadly penalties for disobedience. De Bracy’s refusal to do the necessary but unforgiveable task positions him to replace Fitzurse. Prince John dismisses De Bracy, who leaves imagining his future glory as High Marshall of England. Intuiting that De Bracy’s loyalties lie only with himself, Prince John quietly makes arrangements for his loyal servants to keep an eye on the mercenary.
As John’s inner circle crumbles, the limits of his freewheeling abuse of power, ungrounded in legal principles or any sort of ethical code, become clear. And because he himself behaves in traitorous ways, his advisors cannot—and should not—trust him. Without justice and order, the book suggests here, any government—and the people it governs—is doomed to collapse. Importantly, this is a lesson which applies equally to any era of history, not just the book’s medieval setting.
Themes
